The patient’s health was suffering because he couldn’t afford one of the cheapest, most effective medicines in the marketplace. He was coming back and forth to the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Medical Center for his care. His physician, an internal medicine trainee at the University of Michigan, tried everything in her power to help the patient, but his health kept declining. Then one morning, she entered the clinic room and saw him look back at her with a big grin on his face. He’d gained 10 pounds; he had more energy, and less depression. It was a medical miracle. How had it happened?
One of the faculty physicians supervising her in clinic had witnessed the patient’s decline and sent him money to buy the medicine he needed. That medicine was a mixture of protein, fat, and carbohydrates that typically goes by its generic name: food!
Despite the great wealth of our nation, millions of Americans suffer from food insecurity, uncertain they can afford enough food to meet basic caloric needs. Such insecurity can take a terrible physical toll, as the opening anecdote illustrates. But we don’t need to rely on anecdotes to picture the toll of food insecurity.
(To read the rest of the article, please visit Forbes).